This collection of papers originated as a symposium at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association in New Orlean in April 2000. The symposium was organized to promote the exchange of the information related to mathematics teachers training in different education system. The symposium presentations provided glimpses if the ways in which the initial preparation and/or the ongoing professional development of mathematics teachers occurs in the United States and in several education systems in East Asia. The papers collected in this journal issue are an outgrowth of the symposium and reflect a subset of The perspectives present here. In this special issue the reader will find analyses by scholars from the East and West of the preparation and development of mathematics teachers in Mainland China, Singapore, Taiwan, and the United States, with each education system treated in the separete paper.